September 22, 1944 - State Hospital Conditions Dangerous
As publish in the Buffalo Courier Express
State Hospital Conditions Dangerous, Union Declares
Overcrowding of Patients, Manpower Lack Charged at Meeting to Seek Pay Increase
Appalling conditions at the Buffalo State Hospital, the result of overcrowding and a lack of sufficient manpower, were charged last night as the State Hospital Local of the State, County and Municipal Works of America, CIO, met to demand immediate action for adjustment of employee wage scales.
At an open meeting attended by legislators and labor and civic representatives, Andrew T Cummings, local president, declared the institution is such that "describing it as dangerous is treating the subject lightly."
Says Staff Dwindling
Because organized appeals during the last two years have not "even begun to bring a solution, or bring wages up to living standards for those employed here," Cummings said the hospital lacks 150 employees on its staff while the number of patients is 550 beyond capacity.
Frederick Fisher. secretary of the local, voiced the hope that citizen committees would be formed to "see that the taxpayers get the service from the Buffalo State Hospital which they are paying for."
"These people are in the hospital for the care their families cannot give them at home," Fisher declared. "They are not getting that care when employees not only have their work to do but that of 150 others who left because they could not exist on an annual wage of $1,200 to $1,900 in these times."
Attendant Threatened
He charged conditions are becoming dangerous for attendants because of additional burdens.
"When one man has three or four charges to attend," he said, "he is constantly in danger. Only a short time ago, one of our attendants was threatened by a man who broke a table and brandished a table leg, demanding to be set free. Probably the good judgement of that attendant save him from harm when he let the man pass."
He said the inmate was captured later.
Apologizing for the other conditions be described at the institution, Fisher said they were unavoidable because of an inadequate staff.
Pay Called First Step
"Steps to be taken," he said, must be for adjustment of the manpower situation and pay. And because no one will work here for the salaries offered, the pay question must be our first demand."
Earlier this month, the state salary standardization board informed the local it would grand salary re-allocations of $100 to $200 annually, to become effective in April, 1945.
One of the main purposes of last night's meeting was to reject this offer.
Assemblyman Harold B Elrlich, principal speaker, promised that the matter of salaries would not fall on deaf ears. Declaring the Legislature would take up the problem, he said conditions were bound to be corrected because of the organized move to present the problem. He added that he did not want to see the matter become a political issue.
Hugh S Thombson, regional director for the CIO, said it is the duty of every citizen to "shout about these conditions."
"I knew little of what was going on her until tonight," he said, "and just wait until I start shouting. I don't think anyone going to the United Employment Service for work will listen to a $1,300-a-year-job.
"The Republican candidate for President declared the other night that wages should go up."
"The state has a surplus of hundreds of thousands of dollars...
State Hospital Conditions Dangerous, Union Declares
Overcrowding of Patients, Manpower Lack Charged at Meeting to Seek Pay Increase
Appalling conditions at the Buffalo State Hospital, the result of overcrowding and a lack of sufficient manpower, were charged last night as the State Hospital Local of the State, County and Municipal Works of America, CIO, met to demand immediate action for adjustment of employee wage scales.
At an open meeting attended by legislators and labor and civic representatives, Andrew T Cummings, local president, declared the institution is such that "describing it as dangerous is treating the subject lightly."
Says Staff Dwindling
Because organized appeals during the last two years have not "even begun to bring a solution, or bring wages up to living standards for those employed here," Cummings said the hospital lacks 150 employees on its staff while the number of patients is 550 beyond capacity.
Frederick Fisher. secretary of the local, voiced the hope that citizen committees would be formed to "see that the taxpayers get the service from the Buffalo State Hospital which they are paying for."
"These people are in the hospital for the care their families cannot give them at home," Fisher declared. "They are not getting that care when employees not only have their work to do but that of 150 others who left because they could not exist on an annual wage of $1,200 to $1,900 in these times."
Attendant Threatened
He charged conditions are becoming dangerous for attendants because of additional burdens.
"When one man has three or four charges to attend," he said, "he is constantly in danger. Only a short time ago, one of our attendants was threatened by a man who broke a table and brandished a table leg, demanding to be set free. Probably the good judgement of that attendant save him from harm when he let the man pass."
He said the inmate was captured later.
Apologizing for the other conditions be described at the institution, Fisher said they were unavoidable because of an inadequate staff.
Pay Called First Step
"Steps to be taken," he said, must be for adjustment of the manpower situation and pay. And because no one will work here for the salaries offered, the pay question must be our first demand."
Earlier this month, the state salary standardization board informed the local it would grand salary re-allocations of $100 to $200 annually, to become effective in April, 1945.
One of the main purposes of last night's meeting was to reject this offer.
Assemblyman Harold B Elrlich, principal speaker, promised that the matter of salaries would not fall on deaf ears. Declaring the Legislature would take up the problem, he said conditions were bound to be corrected because of the organized move to present the problem. He added that he did not want to see the matter become a political issue.
Hugh S Thombson, regional director for the CIO, said it is the duty of every citizen to "shout about these conditions."
"I knew little of what was going on her until tonight," he said, "and just wait until I start shouting. I don't think anyone going to the United Employment Service for work will listen to a $1,300-a-year-job.
"The Republican candidate for President declared the other night that wages should go up."
"The state has a surplus of hundreds of thousands of dollars...
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